Strip Superstar

CityCenter Development Takes Center Stage

In just a couple months, the curtain will rise on one of the most dramatic showstoppers in Las Vegas.

By Tony IllIa

CityCenter, an $8.5-billion mixed-use development, has all the drama befitting a Las Vegas Strip spectacular.

There have been construction deaths, funding problems and a lawsuit that threatened completion. But worker accidents have subsided amid mandatory safety training, lenders have kept funding in place despite the recession and the lawsuit was dropped—and CityCenter’s six buildings of upscale hotel, residential and entertainment space are now scheduled to debut later this year.

“CityCenter construction continues to be on track as planned,” Bobby Baldwin, the development’s president and CEO, told investors in a September conference call. “There are currently only two tower cranes remaining on the site, and 9,500 construction workers are actively involved in the finalization of the construction. The opening this December will be phased with Vdara opening first on Dec. 1.”

The 18-million-sq-ft CityCenter development sits on 76 acres along the Las Vegas Strip. It begins opening in phases this December, begining with the 57-story condo-hotel Vdara. (Photo courtesy MGM MIRAGE)

The 57-story Vdara will feature 1,495 hotel and condominium units.

The 18-million-sq-ft development departs from the typical Strip landscape of volcanoes and pyramids, with sleek modern designs from celebrity architects that include Pelli Clarke Pelli, New Haven, Conn.; Studio Daniel Libeskind, Rafael Viñoly Architects, New York; Murphy/Jahn, Chicago; Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, New York; and Rockwell Group, New York.

It’s the first time many of the firms have worked in the city. San Francisco-based Gensler is the executive architect, and Perini Building Co., a unit of Tudor Perini Corp., Framingham, Mass., is the general contractor. Tishman Construction Corp., New York, is the construction manager. The development is a joint-venture project by MGM Mirage Inc., Las Vegas, and Infinity World Development, a unit of Dubai World, a Dubai government investment company.

CityCenter rests on 76 acres along Las Vegas Boulevard between the Monte Carlo and Bellagio resorts and features $40 million in public art installations.

Among the myriad of new restaurants opening with CityCenter is Twist by Pierre Ganaire. The chef’s first U.S. restaurant will be located in the 47-story Mandarin Oriental in block C of CityCenter. (Image courtesy Mandarin Oriental, Las Vegas)

New York-based Ehrenkrantz Eckstut & Kuhn Architects, the same firm responsible for Battery City Park, is CityCenter’s master-plan designer. The development is anchored by the 61-story, 4,004-room ARIA hotel and casino, designed by Pelli Clarke Pelli, the firm headed by architect Cesar Pelli. Pelli created the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, which held the world’s tallest building title from 1998 to 2004.

HKS Inc., Dallas, is the architect of-record.

“It’s tough keeping up with construction,” says Laura Walters, HKS vice president of construction. “We oversee 70 designers and six general contractors. Each individual venue has its own designer and contractor.”

The 600-ft-tall, 6.5-million-sq-ft, cast-in-place, curvilinear, glass-sheathed ARIA – CityCenter’s biggest building – features a 150,000-sq-ft casino and 1,800-seat theater. It also has a 220,000-sq-ft pool deck and 300,000 sq ft of convention space. It is flanked by a 500,000-sq-ft metal-skinned low-rise called the Crystals – a shopping mall created by architect Daniel Libeskind who is overseeing redevelopment of the World Trade Center site.

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The jewel-shaped building has signed 39 leases thus far with such high-end retailers as Bulgari, Hermes, Christian Dior, Tiffany & Co., Cartier, Louis Vuitton and Porsche Design, among others. The sculptural structure has two restaurants by Wolfgang Puck as well as Beso Las Vegas, a restaurant by actress Eva Longoria.

South of the Crystals sits the 47-story, 392-room Mandarin Oriental Las Vegas, a nongaming hotel with 227 residences that can double as hotel rooms. The cast-in-place, glazed high-rise is designed by Kohn Pederson Fox Associates, the firm behind the Shanghai World Financial Center.

Mandarin Oriental has a 12,000-sq-ft Sky Lobby on the 23rd floor, plus two restaurants, 27,000-sq-ft spa, outdoor pool and 12,000-sq-ft of meeting space.

Veers Towers, to the north, consists of two 37-story, 335-unit, glass residential buildings wrapped in a yellow checkerboard fritting that reduces heat gain. Designed by Murphy/Jahn, the twin towers cantilever 1 degree off center in opposite directions to create an illusion of leaning.

The northwest edge of CityCenter features architect Rafael Viñoly’s 57-story crescent-shaped Vdara glass tower. Nancy Rubins’ 50-ft-tall, 80-ft-long Big Pleasure Pointart installation is located off Vdara’s Harmon Avenue entrance.

Rounding out the development is a 400-room Harmon Hotel & Spa, which shrunk from 49 stories to 28 stories in January. Two hundred condominiums, of which only 44% were presold, were eliminated from the oval-shaped, blue-glass building, thereby saving $600 million in construction costs, say MGM Mirage officials.

It will now open late next year, roughly a year after CityCenter’s debut, with $200 million in deferred expenses for the interior fit-out.

Designed by Foster + Partners, London, the tower was scaled back amid a sluggish economy and pricey retrofits needed to fix defective construction. Reinforcing steel rebar was improperly installed inside link beams on 15 floors. In some instances, stirrup hooks, light-gauge steel used to hold rebar in place, poked past the floor slab and workers cut them off so it wouldn’t show. The Las Vegas office of Halcrow Yolles Structural Engineers discovered the construction mistakes.

A Clark County investigation contends that Monrovia, Calif.-based third-party inspector Converse Consultants had falsified 62 daily reports between March and July 2008. A six-month county ban from seeking new work in southern Nevada was leveled against the firm.

Pacific Coast Steel, the San Diego contractor responsible for the shoddy work, paid $14,105 in fines after receiving five “workmanship” notices from the state Contractors Board. Under the settlement, the firm did not admit fault.

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